Food Blogs

In my previous post, I wrote about my favorite cookbooks, however I actually get most off my recipes off blogs. I just find other people's recipes more realistic than in some cookbooks as they use everyday ingredients. Also you can ask the author questions about whether they think a certain substitution would work.

So here are a few of my favorite blogs:

We Don't Eat Anything With A Face

This is actually a vegetarian food blog, but vegan recipes are clearly marked and a lot of them can be easily veganised, the author is a working Mum of two so the recipes are perfect if you don't have a lot of time. A couple of favorites:

• Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
• Apple Cake
• Mincemeat

All these recipes are great for using up apples if you happen to find yourself overloaded with apples from the apple tree in your garden, like we do every year!!!

Flash Gordonette

My friend from University, and fellow vegan who is a massive Queen fan (hence the blog name), here you will find great seitan recipes (really want to try the vegan kebab recipe at some point), the famous Vegan Carrot Cake :-) and the easiest hummus recipe ever- there isn't even a need to peel a garlic clove!

The Vegan Stoner

The main reason I love this blog is because instead of listing the ingredients, they draw pictures of them instead, and where possible make the pictures funny, for example a pack of frozen vegetables is drawn as a carrot and broccoli (I think?) in coats, in the snow looking quite cold! The other reason is the recipes are very easy- are you getting the theme here???

• Coconut Pot Pie- I liked this, The Boy was less impressed
• Peanut Stew
• Falafel Pie

The Post Punk Kitchen

No vegan food blog list would be complete without a mention of the Queen of Vegan Cooking's blog.  The Post Punk Kitchen (or PPK as it's affectionately known) is Isa Chandra Moskowitz creation.  I love Isa's witty writing style and this website is more than just a food blog, it's a whole community for like minded people. There are so many great recipes, and Isa often puts recipes from here cookbooks on her blog so it's great to get a taste of what kind of thing you can expect from the cookbook before buying it.

• Chickpea Cutlets- a great introduction to using wheat gluten.
• Quarter Pounder Beet Burgers- Beets= beetroot! If you're not a fan of aniseed you might want to swap the fennel seeds for something else. Maybe cumin seeds???
• Meaty Beany Chili- I'm a big fan of anything I can whack in a slow cooker and come home to a ready made tea.  I also love the video, Isa rocks!

I could go on and on, but I think three recommendations are enough!

Amuse Your Bouche

I use Pintrest a lot to create a online scrapbook of recipes (click here to view my profile and take a look around) which is where I discovered this blog. Wednesday in our house is wrap night, which usually translates to mexican food and her Slow Cooker lentil quinoa tacos and Lentil and black bean tacos are regular Wednesday night staples (although we just usually serve them in soft tortillas rather than taco shells). 

Top With Cinnamon

I found this blog when someone on Facebook mentioned her Healthy 3 Ingredient Chocolate Fudge Sauce, naturally I was intrigued- healthy, easy chocolate fudge sauce? What is not to love!  The author of the blog is only 18, and having started her blog at the age of 15 has manage to write her own cookbook which will be published later this year, all whilst studying Biology, Chemistry and Maths at A level!

This is not a vegan blog, neither is it vegetarian, however the author has awareness of vegan cooking and is able to come up with some vegan recipes- despite being an omni herself!

It can take a while to find the vegan recipes in the recipe archive section, however the blog is definitely worth a look- amazing recipes (single serving desserts), beautiful pictures and posts are very well written.

Hottie Black Eyed Peas & Greens with Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples

A couple of us at work have started a weight loss club, and since being vegan I've found it quite easy to lose a few pounds.  Not through trying, but when you're vegan and eating out it often means you have to skip dessert, and also as I don't drive and rely on public transport to get around, I do a hell of a lot of walking!

However, over the last few weeks, through eating too much vegan cake, including the discovery of this vegan microwave brownie recipe as well as general overindulgence I've put on a few pounds.  So I'm trying to act early and get em back off!

So I grabbed Isa's Appetite for Reduction.

Someone recommended her Hottie Black Eyed Peas & Greens (at a Cake Liberation Front meetup) and the book recommends having it with Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples, so since I had the day off I thought I would give it a go.  If you haven't got the book, Isa has published the recipe on the PPK Blog.

The hardest thing about these recipes is the amount of peeling and chopping of vegetables, once that was done it was quite easy.  I just about avoided a disaster with the black eyed peas recipe, it calls for one cup of tomato sauce, which in my mind means ketchup. However, after googling "What does it mean in American recipes by tomato sauce" I found out what it actually meant was passata.  See what I mean by having to be careful with American recipes?!

Also, Isa suggests piling the kale leaves on top of each other to chop, however I can only find curly kale which you can't really use this trick with. I usually just grab a bunch off it, scrunch in up, do my best to roll it and then cut it finely.

I was a bit suspicious about adding apples to the sweet potato mash, but it worked really well, and The Boy was impressed with the whole thing, which is a win in my book. I think this will definitely become a favorite in this house, especially as it's low calorie and tastes amazing!

Cookbooks

Yes, I've changed my blog name from Herbivorous Carnivore to The Boltonian Vegan.  It's something I've meaning to do for a while, the name Herbivorous Carnivore seemed outdated and to be honest, a bit meaningless.

I've changed the style of the blog too, and added a fake FAQ section (I hope you enjoy it- it would be nice to add some real FAQs at some point so ask away).  Over time I hope to refine the blog further and want to try and design my own blog background, if anyone has any tips on how to do this, please let me know!

Anyway, back to the theme of the post, which is cookbooks.  I've always been a bit of a cookbook hoarder, and at the moment I'm trying to get into the habit of creating my own recipes, instead of just following other recipes exactly- something I blame my scientific background/slight OCD for!

Anyway, here a couple cookbooks I love:

Appetite For Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowski 

This is the first Isa book I have owned, and I definitely want to get hold of her others.  The only downsides to her books are that there isn't a picture for each recipe, which is something I look for in a recipe book, and as it's American the book is full of American terms and measurements.  This is something you get use to over time, google is a godsend for finding out what strange American terms actually mean in English, and the set of cup measures I got in Mozzers (aka Morrisons) has made following American recipes a lot easier.  The recipe I make most out of this book is mac and trees- I'm always glad when The Boy is out for tea and I can whip this up for tea!

New Complete Vegetarian- Rose Elliott

Not actually a vegan cookbook, but a lot of the recipes are vegan or can be made vegan.  The book comes with a handy section on soaking and cooking dried pulses which I have bookmarked as I try to cook my own pulses instead of buying tins.  I love the carrot and ginger soup and the butter bean curry.

Abel and Cole- The Veg Box Companion

I got this free with my first veg box from them and I've found the book so useful for finding out how to use veg that is a bit out of the ordinary and it's great for simple recipes, however it's not an exclusively meat free book, so I doubt I would have bought it myself.  You can still get quite a few of the recipes from their website in the recipes section, you can even search by vegetable and filter just to show vegan recipes.  My all time favorite is the Roots Manoeuvre Curry which is constantly bookmarked!

Easy Vegan

I very nearly didn't put this on here, just because it's not one of my favorite cookbooks as I find a lot of the recipes uninspiring. However it's a good starter book, and the spicy bean burritos make a lovely packed lunch.

Ms Cupcake The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town

I had to put this on, even though I've not got round to doing many of the recipes yet.  Even if you never use this book, it's worth having for two reasons: the first is it helps to demystify lots of the American terms, brands and has both cup and proper measurements and the second is it doubles so well as a coffee table book and I can spend ages just marvelling at the pictures.  A word of warning- the icing recipes use up half a box of icing sugar, which I just find irritating as I have to buy icing sugar every time I go shopping, so you may wish to scale it down a tad.  I became a bit obsessed with the blueberry and lemon loaf last Summer (hell, I was just blueberry obsessed!!) and this Summer I can't wait for Strawberry season so that I can make her Neapolitan triple layer cake. 

You may think this is a short list for a self confessed cookbook hoarder, but I tend to buy all these cookbook and then just use the internet anyway- daft I know. So coming up next time is my guide to vegan recipes on the t'internet :-) 

Vegetarian shoes- because I've missed a bit of shoe with my gravy.

My blog posts are like buses- you wait months for one and two come along in one weekend.

There are several reasons why I'm doing two posts this weekend:

1) I'm alone this weekend, so no Boy to distract me

2) I have my blogging head on, and was practically writing this post in my head- I've found that in this situation, it's best to seize the moment or I'll develop writers block.

3) The most important reason- I'm supposed to be cleaning and I cannot be arsed.

When you tell people your vegetarian or vegan, the one question omnis ask is:

So why are you vegetarian/vegan?

On many occasions (but not always), what this actually means is:

"Give me a reason and I'll come up with a counter argument why this is wrong and why your choice is wrong/impossible/ridiculous"

For some reason, when people hear that YOU have decided not to eat meat or any animal products, you're actually challenging THEIR was of life, which actually is offensive to them. Which is not the case with me, being vegan is my choice, they can do whatever the hell they like, as long as they respect my choice as I do theirs. 

A common counter-argument used by omnis, trying to defend their way of life in this non existent argument is:

"Yeah, but what are your shoes made of?" *smug face*

So when I became vegetarian, I decided to make sure that I could answer this with:

"Not leather" *Smug face plus middle finger*

Did I immediately throw away all my shoes? HELL NO- I don't like waste, and since one of the few things I insist on buying new is shoes, I'm not going to give my shoes to charity.  Therefore, I gradually started to buy non-leather shoes when my old ones got worn out- which didn't take long because I don't buy shoes that often and all my shoes were getting on a bit anyway.

Now you could get really cheap leather shoes from Shoe Zone etc, however they do not last very long, they may contain animal glues and are often made in places where workers are paid an unfair wage and work in rotten conditions- and if you're going to go veggie or vegan for animal welfare reason, you should give a shit about humans too!

I am now proud to say that ALL my shoe collection is animal product free :-)

First up, was my first ever Vegetarian Shoes purchase, and probably my most useless pair of shoes.  After years of moaning that Ugg boots were pointless, I found myself craving a pair. But not a pair made of sheep skin.  I got these on sale for £35, shoes from this company can be a bit expensive, so it's worth keeping and eye out for sales (act quick, things sell out fast!). They are pretty useless, but comfy and pretty. I tend to use them when I'm going somewhere indoors via car and I'm being lazy- you can just slip em on.

Next are my knee high boots, which I'm wearing quite a lot at the moment.  These are from a new company called Wills Vegan Shoes.  I love these, look very convincing too.

I got these in readiness for this year's snow that hasn't happened (yet).  It can get pretty bad round here, and as I live on an estate, it can get pretty icy because no one bothers to grit it (despite there being quite a number of old people here, which infuriates me).  I go them from Vegetarian Shoes, and they have fold out metal grips to help you keep upright in the ice. A bit on the pricey side, but I got a bonus from work and they are very practical and comfy. I often wear these instead of trainers when I'm out and about.

Prices for vegan shoes can be a bit on the steep side sometimes, however Alternative Stores do have some more affordable shoes.  I got the shoes below last summer for work. The quality isn't great but then they were quite cheap.  I still love them because they remind me of the type of shoes I wore at Primary school, but in adult size.

I got these next ones from Vegetarian Shoes because the ones above were looking a bit worn after a while. Again, these are work shoes, they also do a red pair I think are really cool.

I got the next pair from Alternative Stores again when I briefly had a go at running and then going to the gym. Now I do neither, however as I don't drive and rely on public transport, I do a hell of a lot of walking which keeps me fit anyway.  These are a bit chavtastic, but I love that they are pink and sparkly!

I would never wear these as my casual trainers, as they're too high on the chav scale for my liking, so I bought these Macbeth trainers.  Macbeth are an American company that do a range of vegan trainers.  I actually got these off ebay, and have a saved search on there for vegan shoes.  You can get some bargains on ebay, however you have to be careful as some people just list any old non-leather shoe as vegan so if you don't recognise the brand, google BRAND NAME + VEGAN which should tell you if they are actually vegan, with no animal glues etc.

Wills Vegan Shoes recently had a sale on, so I picked up these.  Unlike my boots, I found the fit a bit tight, but I stretched them by stuffing them with t-shirts when I wasn't wearing them and wearing them around the house to break them in a little.  They seem fine now, but since I'm not a heel girl, I'll probably wear them to sitting down events.

Well that's my entire shoe collection- quite small compared to some people I know!

Other places to find vegan shoes:

Dr Martens: I loved my pair of Doc Martins (mine were purple) and the company sell a range of vegan boots. Keep an eye on ebay for bargains!
Irregular Choice: Label their vegan shoes and bags on their website. I had one of their bags for ages, I loved it and it got so many comments. Again, find what you like on their website and keep an eye on ebay. Bargains are rare but they do come up.
Iron Fist: A completely vegan company. However, my current bag is from there and I'm pretty disappointed with the quality but maybe their shoes are better?
Tuk Shoes: Mark up which of their shoes are vegan. Be warned though, I bought a pair of their shoes in a size 5 and it was way too small (I never usually have an issue) so try and get the next size up.  Was gutted that I had to send them back, and as I bought them for a friend's birthday do, it wasn't worth reordering as I wouldn't have got them in time.
Nu Rock: Have a range of vegan boots.  Not too sure if this is their official site, but again ebay is worth a shot.
Eco Vegan Shoes: I have my eye on a pair of new trainers and wellies on their website.  They have a 50% sale on at the moment, it's taking all my willpower not to splurge!
Free Rangers: Made to measure shoes, I was tempted to get a pair of Summer sandals from here, but since I don't fit into one of their usual sizes they suggested sending a 'foot map' (a drawing of the outline of each foot) by post (a scanned image could apparently be distorted) along with a postal order.  Which for an internet addict seemed a bit too much of a faff!
Tivydale Shoes: A new vegan shoe company based in Salford. Mostly high heels, so not really my thing.

I could go on and on, but I think now is a good time to stop.

What I've been eating at home

Oh Dear.

I've not been very good at keeping to my New Year's Resolution of blogging more often.

However, I gone further than just 'Being more vegan' and have actually gone vegan.  I was going to write a blog about why I've made this decision, but developed writer's block and didn't attempt to blog again for over a month. Therefore I'm just going to abandon that idea, it's not like there anything that's not been said before.

Being vegan hasn't meant eating dull food, otherwise I would have cracked by now. I thought I would use this post to update you on what I've been making at home.

I've been making a fair few noodle dishes, the first one below is some microwave noodles I picked up at Home & Bargains that were marked vegan along with some coleslaw mix I marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger and then wrapped in rice paper and some stir fried mushrooms.

The DVD box set in the top left hand corner is Father Ted.

This noodle dish is peanutty noodles made using this recipe, again with stir fried mushrooms and some crispy kale 'seaweed' made using this recipe.

An all time favorite, pasta with broccoli, pesto and pine nuts served with garlic bread.  The pesto I use is Zest's vegan pesto however, I've heard that technically this is not a pesto (however, I don't care, it's yum!). The garlic bread is ASDA smart price from the frozen food aisle (the smart price unfrozen garlic bread is not vegan).

This next picture is really something I eat at work, and is more of an idea than an actual recipe. As I get up at 6am for work, and have to be out the house by 6.30 I eat breakfast at work. At the start of the week I fill little containers with porridge oats, ground flax seed, almond butter, raisins and some healthy chocolate fudge sauce made using this recipe, pour over some milk alternative (I like oat and almond milk), pop on the lid and put it in the fridge. Then each morning, take a pot to work and warm it up in the microwave for a minute.

Next time I'm getting Hazelnut butter- mmm vegan nutella!

Buffalo cauliflower (missed out the sauce and put some Nando's Mild Peri Peri sauce on instead), bbq beans (just squeeze in some bbq sauce into regular beans) and some roasted parsnips.  Cauliflower is not my favorite veg, but it's flavour improves when roasted and it retains more of it's vitamins compared to boiling.

Not the best picture, but carrot cake pancakes for pancake day.

A recent discovery, is this vegan mozzarella recipe. I'm not a big cheese fan, but I do miss it's ability to hold toppings on a pizza.

I usually go a bit crazy with pizza toppings, this is quite reserved for me!

I also made a vegan moxy, avocado and red onion toastie, The Boy had to take the toastie maker apart to clean it afterwards as I got a bit carried away with the moxy and it went EVERYWHERE!

Whenever I'm eating alone, this is my go to dish as The Boy refuses to touch nutritional yeast.  Before my vegan days, I would have snubbed mac and cheese, but it's kind of like Pop Tarts- before going vegetarian, I hated pop tarts (I hate sugary breakfast items- my Mum very rarely let me have things like coco pops so now anything like that for breakfast just seems strange) but when I because veggie and found out that the frosted pop tarts had gelatine in the icing and therefore were unsuitable for vegetarians I became obsessed with finding the unfrosted versions.  Now I'm vegan, I developed a similar obsession with vegan mac and cheese.  This version is vegan mac and trees (name from the addition of broccoli) and is from Isa's Chandra's Appetite for Reduction, sometimes I'll add peas instead/as well.  I don't think the sauce tastes of cheese (as it isn't cheese- duh!) but it's very tasty and as I was never a big cheese fan it isn't a big deal.  I added some Zest pesto to the sauce in the picture below.

I have a bit of a cheat's way of cooking pasta- bring the water to the boil, then add your pasta.  When it comes back to the boil, pop a lid on and turn off the hob completely. The pasta will cook in the same amount of time as on the packet, but without using as much energy. I always have some frozen broccoli in the freezer and I usually chuck it in with the pasta just before I turn the gas off, this will also works with fresh broccoli too.

I think that's enough for now!  Just shows you that vegans don't just live on lentils!